| dc.description.abstract | This article examines how Israeli-based media uses discursive framings of ecological
violence to normalize settler colonial processes and maintain social control over Indigenous Palestinians. In this study, I focus on the particular case of Palestinian olive trees in the West Bank. Olive trees carry significant symbolic meanings and value, as Palestinian people, like the trees they have so long cultivated, are deeply rooted and connected to their land. Drawing data from three mainstream Israeli news and media outlets, I conduct a qualitative content analysis of 75 randomly selected news and media articles between the years 2014 and 2023. My results demonstrate that Israeli media narratives normalize ecological violence against Indigenous Palestinians by legitimizing settler violence and erasing Palestinian indigeneity. Specifically, Israeli media framings legitimize settler violence by failing to characterize the destruction of olive trees as ecological harm, minimizing the suffering of Palestinians, and absolving perpetrators (i.e., settlers) of settler violence. Simultaneously, Israeli media narratives erase Palestinian indigeneity by undermining the ancestral connections between Indigenous Palestinians and their lands. Together, the strategies of legitimizing settler violence and erasing Palestinian indigeneity disrupt and displace embodied connections between Indigenous Palestinians and their land, thereby enacting and normalizing ecological violence in Palestine. Indigenous communities across the globe are exposed to ecological violence as a method of social control. Taking a critical environmental justice approach to examine the role of media in imposing and sustaining settler colonial logic furthers our understanding of the weaponization of the environment to carry out ecological violence towards Indigenous populations, like the Palestinians. Such a lens contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the dynamics at play in the olive tree discourse in Palestine and its broader implications for Palestinian environmental justice and Palestinian indigeneity. | |
